Arcadia Biosciences, Inc., a leader in science-based approaches to enhancing the quality and nutritional value of crops and food ingredients, announced a binding term sheet agreement with Arista Cereal Technologies and Bay State Milling Company for commercialization of its high fiber resistant starch wheat in key wheat markets, including North America, Europe and parts of Asia.
Under the terms of the binding agreement, Bay State Milling will become the exclusive commercial partner for Arcadia's high fiber wheat in North America under Bay State Milling's HealthSense™ brand portfolio, while Arista receives exclusive rights under Arcadia's intellectual property in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Japan and South Korea. Arcadia will continue to market its high fiber wheat under its GoodWheat™ portfolio of specialty wheat ingredients in other international markets. The agreement resolves an intellectual property dispute between the three companies over Arcadia's high fiber wheat. The agreement earns Arcadia royalties for sales of its wheat varieties in North America by Bay State Milling, plus additional considerations.
Arcadia's high fiber wheat delivers multiple times the resistant starch as traditional wheat and significantly higher amounts of dietary fiber than traditional wheat flour. Because of its high fiber content, consumer product goods companies, food manufacturers and food service retailers can reduce the need to add other sources of fiber in their formulation and simplify their ingredient labels.
In 2015, the global flour market was valued at $200 billion and is estimated to reach a value of $270 billion by 2022. The United States Department of Agriculture reported the total value of wheat production in the US was $9.7 billion for 2018. Wheat contributes about 20% of the total dietary calories and proteins worldwide, according to a 2013 paper published in Food Security. Arcadia's high fiber wheat can provide additional, proven health benefits for consumers who want to continue to enjoy the wheat-based foods they love.
